New Member CLK350

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Tinonline

New Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2020
Messages
7
Location
Reading
Car
CLK350; Lexus LS400
Hi. It's great to be here. I confess the 2007 CLK belongs to my eldest...but guess who is looking after it...?

I've had the pleasure of owning a 2ltr W series and a 2ltr C200 which was a fabulous, reliable workhorse. I've given up with Jags having just scrapped a year 2000 S Type V8 and sold off a 2003 4.2 XKR. If these Jags had been built by Mercedes or Lexus...they would be truly great motors. My current motor is a Lexus 400 - last of the line - the legend around these cars is true: 0-60 in about 6.5 seconds, good handling believe it or not...I bought it from a neighbour for £700 as a temporary transport measure and very soon felt I could not part with it. I changed the cambelt, waterpump and pulleys; front brakes and got a friendly local garage to do front lower strut bushes, and ball joints. Whilst trying to select Lexus OEM parts I will use quality non OE and will buy from the US where there's a better range, availability and price...inclusive of tax and delivery.

I love the CLK, its an AMG extras 2007 and luckily this engine does not have the cam sprocket issues.

Like all second hand cars though, it needs some servicing.

First off was an engine light coming on. Diagnostics came up with a P0025 code: Camshaft Position Actuator B - Bank 2 Timing Over-Retard.
For a UK car that's passenger side: outer magnetic solenoid. Part number 2720510177
I cleared the code but it later returned...then cleared itself!

I paid about £28 for an OEM part and decided to only replace the faulty unit at this stage and the O-rings and seals from the sensor units and other magnetic solenoids.

It's a straightforward job and I used an E8 socket and E8 spanner. You don't need to remove or detach the steering pump reservoir but I did remove the cap and put clingfilm over the top to give me more room. The old seals were very tired and had lost their elasticity. I cleaned the solenoids and magnets and re-oiled the magnets on assembly. I stuffed cloths in to the unit holes while cleaning surrounding areas. All runs fine.

Next jobs: top up coolant: it's got amber colour fluid at the moment and ideally I'd drain and replace the lot, except as per I've recommended to my son: that he lets the car prove itself first...make sure he wants to keep it -or sell it to me ;) - that there's nothing major amiss and shake it down over the first year of ownership.
Also needs an oil change. As that shakedown principle I'll use good quality parts but look at keeping the price down: Mann filter, Triple Q oil.
Top Up coolant will be Prestons any colour to any vehicle fluid - it doesn't need much and at the next service I'll replace the lot.

Look forward to being part of the forum, learning from and contributing to help as much as I can. :)
 

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Welcome, you make me feel lazy , although I do look under the bonnet once every month :rolleyes:
 
Welcome buddy , lovely car , from a fellow CLK owner .
Whats the mileage on yours and has there been a gearbox atf and filter change ? Every 40k recommended
 
Welcome buddy , lovely car , from a fellow CLK owner .
Whats the mileage on yours and has there been a gearbox atf and filter change ? Every 40k recommended

Hi

Thank you and thanks to all who have responded. :)

Mileage is at 59k and you raise a good question...I can't find evidence of a gearbox oil change. There's a good indy up the road who will do that - it is a priority. Once done it's one less item to worry about. The brakes will be on the list by next year I reckon.

The dealer servicing seems to stop at 21k with an Indy one at 25k then I see a receipt from last year for a full service. I think it has led a low mileage life with an increase in the latter year. It is immaculate and apart from the odd mark like a new car.

Gone are the days when the auto gearbox was the most robust, reliable unit...ZF gearboxes were the plague of a whole series of cars for Ford, BMW, Range Rover, Jaguar - with widespread total failure and sorry to say around launch of Jag XK the fitted Merc box had regular failures too.

Sealed for life = plastic box with a handful of cogs thrown in...:eek:

Sorry...showing my age. ;) Grumpy.
 
Hi

Thank you and thanks to all who have responded. :)

Mileage is at 59k and you raise a good question...I can't find evidence of a gearbox oil change. There's a good indy up the road who will do that - it is a priority. Once done it's one less item to worry about. The brakes will be on the list by next year I reckon.

The dealer servicing seems to stop at 21k with an Indy one at 25k then I see a receipt from last year for a full service. I think it has led a low mileage life with an increase in the latter year. It is immaculate and apart from the odd mark like a new car.

Gone are the days when the auto gearbox was the most robust, reliable unit...ZF gearboxes were the plague of a whole series of cars for Ford, BMW, Range Rover, Jaguar - with widespread total failure and sorry to say around launch of Jag XK the fitted Merc box had regular failures too.

Sealed for life = plastic box with a handful of cogs thrown in...:eek:

Sorry...showing my age. ;) Grumpy.
I’ve just spotted where you live , do you mean Ian at Star Services , Caversham ?
 
Well here’s an update on the CLK350...

My son has done around 1k miles from buying it which is modest...Covid hasn’t helped. Every time I’m in the passenger seat I appreciate the car more and more.

My repairs: new solenoid magnet and seals for the others and cam sensors all are good. My advice to have a gearbox oil and filter change came good and Star Garage undertook this.

Now, how many oil changes have I done...and I was dismayed to see an engine oil leak some time later on the garage floor. So I checked the usual suspects. Nothing. Sump plug needed to be tighter.🙄 No leak now. Panic over.

So. All looked set following what I term as a shake down...

On a motorway journey the engine light came on. 🤭😱 So I feared maybe the solenoid hadn’t done the trick after the P00025 code and we hadn’t reset following repair...another magnet had failed...the chains were stretched...something else was forcing the error...I later learnt my repair approach followed MB advice to dealers. Help! Maybe my lad had bought an MB lemon. Now what?

I double checked the engine number and as a 2007 too, it wasn’t in the high risk range for camshaft sprocket wear...doesn’t rule out chains.

The car though was running on the cool side but it was in operational range.

The car made the journey and on return a friend of ours plugged in his ODB2 reader (getting one of those for Christmas...as a Lexus owner I don’t need one...🤭🤗😂

Interesting and huge relief: it was a P00028 code saying temperature was below thermostat operational something or other. Cooling fan and gauges seemed to be in order. Now usually I’d be fixing this but work and time plus an impending need for use of the motor meant it was a phone call to Star Garage asking for help.

Thanks to them my son was fitted in to their schedule and new OE thermostat was fitted. To the car...😁😷 Job done and now the temp looks far more respectable.

I’m not grumbling about that kind of part failure and I’m sure it’s the original: it’ll be good for years now.

👍🔧
 

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